Meant To Be (21 page)

Emily shook hands with Tom and said hello.

‘I hear you're going into business together. You're in great hands.'

Emily nodded and smiled at Tom and then Jake. ‘I think so.'

‘Hey Karen,' Tom said, bending and giving Karen a peck on the cheek.

Don't tell me it's like Wattle Creek where everyone knows everyone? This is a proper city, for goodness sake!

‘Karen's my sister,' Tom said, smiling at the look on Emily's face.

Of course she is.
She almost laughed out loud. Just like Wattle Creek and Hope Springs; every second person is related. Too funny!

‘How did you find me?' Emily said after introducing Jake and Karen.

‘By accident, really. The car was still in its spot so I figured you couldn't be too far away. There aren't many shops. Tom here is relieving Karen for her lunch break, so I thought I'd tag along and see if I bumped into you before phoning. And here you are,' he added, kissing her and draping an arm around her shoulder. ‘So, find anything nice?'

Emily grinned and pointed at the chandelier above them.

‘Wow,' Jake said. ‘Bit soon for that, isn't it?' he teased good-naturedly.

‘That's what I was just saying to Karen,' Emily said. ‘But I have found the perfect floor lamp, desk lamp, and light shade for my office,' she said triumphantly.

‘Great, show me,' Jake said.

‘That desk lamp,' Emily said, indicating her selection sitting on the counter, ‘and everything else is out the back.'

Emily led them through to the next room.

‘The green one,' she said proudly, pointing to the floor lamp, ‘and that schoolhouse light shade for the main bulb,' she said, pointing to the shade on the small desk. ‘All on Karen's recommendation. Lovely, huh?'

‘Perfect,' Jake said. ‘Looks like I've come at just the right time to be pack horse,' he added with a laugh.

‘Yes. Now all I need is a chair. If only you sold office furniture.'

‘I'm afraid not, but you'll find a great selection two shops further along,' Karen said.

Don't tell me, run by your cousin Alfred. I'm not going to ask.

‘Tell Paul I sent you and he'll give you a good deal.'

No, you're not going to ask,
Emily told herself sternly.

‘He's our cousin,' Tom said.

She had to work very hard not to laugh.

‘Do you own the whole city?' Jake asked with a chuckle.

‘Alas, no, but our grandparents were in shoes and haberdashery many moons ago,' Tom explained. ‘We seem to have inherited business brains from them.'

‘Do you mind if I head off for my lunch break? I'm meeting up with a friend,' Karen said suddenly.

‘Sure, no problem.'

‘And can you fix Emily up and pack the lamps for her?' she added.

‘Yep, that's fine. You go,' Tom said to Karen. As she left, he turned back to Emily and Jake. ‘Why don't you guys go and look at chairs while I pack everything up for you?'

‘Okay, thanks, we'll be back soon,' Emily said, and linked her arm through Jake's.

‘So, how was your meeting?' she asked when they were outside on the footpath.

‘Good. Everything's ticking along nicely. They've got a great project manager and team of builders, and won't need me as much as I thought they would. A bit ironic, given I'm only down at Wattle Creek now and not having to come all the way from Melbourne. Oh well, as long as they have someone else to blame things on if it all goes pear-shaped,' he said cheerfully, shrugging.

‘Is that likely?'

‘There's always the chance of a problem arising. But at the moment it's all coming along beautifully. Bit of a waste me being here, really. But at least their lunch was good. And you found your lights. That's good. Have you eaten?'

‘No, I've been in choosing lights this whole time.'

‘You must be starving. It's after one. Let's find you something to eat. We can do the chair after that.'

Emily smiled, enjoying Jake taking charge. It really was rather nice having someone to rely on.

Jake pointed the car towards the highway. After buying a pair of office chairs and collecting her purchases from the lighting shop, Emily had asked him if there was anything else he wanted to do. But he was as keen as her to head home.

‘So, Tom seems nice,' she said, looking across at Jake, as the built-up area came to an end and the grey bitumen stretched ahead through red dirt dotted with low-growing grey-green saltbush and sparsely occurring taller native trees and shrubs. Emily had never liked this drive; she always found it desolate and quite depressing.

‘Yeah. And I found out some very interesting information that will help us with our project,' he said conspiratorially.

‘Oh, like what?'

‘Like, that the Wattle Creek Council use either the building inspector from Port Lincoln or the one in Whyalla – taking turns.'

‘And, don't tell me, Tom is the building inspector at Whyalla?'

‘Yep,' Jake said, nodding.

‘Wouldn't that be illegal, or at least a conflict of interest?' she said.

‘Not really. He doesn't get the whole say, just makes recommendations for the council to rule on. And, anyway, it would be a fifty-fifty chance of him ending up looking at our application. But he did say that Wattle Creek are pretty easy to deal with. Basically, as long as the building meets the regulations, they're not all that fussed what you put up out on a farm. Though he did advise that applying for it as a house rather than a commercial space would mean less red tape. We'll be meeting all the regulations for disabled access anyway, but Tom said the process would be a lot slower if you go down that path. And he's absolutely right. I've done plenty of commercial spaces. The more regulations involved, the worse it gets.'

‘Well, we are building a dwelling, first and foremost. It needs to be versatile if the gallery doesn't work out for any reason. So it's not as if we're being dishonest,' Emily said.

‘Exactly.'

‘What else did he have to say?'

‘The next council meeting is Wednesday week. If we get the plans in by then we might get it through this month. Otherwise we'll have to wait until the next one. Not that it'll really matter; we've got plenty to keep us occupied sorting the stone and cleaning it.'

‘Hmm,' Emily agreed. Thinking about what had to be done to turn the pile of rubble back into a building, and one double the size, was really quite daunting.

‘Which reminds me. David rang just as I was coming out of the meeting. He's sourced the extra stone.'

‘That's good,' she said.

‘Except for the fact that it's only available because an unsentimental person has torn down another quaint old building,' Jake said with a grimace.

‘Hmm.'

‘Still, it's good that we'll be able to give it a new life. All in all, it's been a very productive day for both of us,' he said brightly.

‘Yes,' Emily replied. She was exhausted, and the afternoon sun streaming in through the car windows didn't help. She closed her eyes and pictured the chandelier hanging in the hall. It would be perfect. Absolutely stunning.

*

Emily woke with a start as the gentle vibrations below her changed to a shudder and then gravel began spraying the underneath of the car.

‘Hello sleepyhead,' Jake said, smiling at her and patting her leg.

She looked around. They were nearly home. ‘Hi. So much for keeping you company while you're driving,' Emily said wryly. ‘Sorry.'

‘You were dead to the world. I can only ever doze in a car, I never go fully to sleep,' he said in awe.

‘Must have been all that shopping. I'm totally worn out.'

‘Yeah, all that brain power used for making decisions.'

Emily felt dishevelled. She'd been in a deep dream.
That
dream, the one she'd had a number of times before. She looked out the window and frowned as she tried to recall the details.

She'd been wearing tailored black pants and a formal wraparound silk shirt the exact colour of her unusual grey-and-navy-blue eyes. A photographer had been bouncing back and forth making exaggerated gestures with his hands while she posed against a mantelpiece with a large mirror framed in gold above it. Jake was beside her in a charcoal-grey suit. It was a very formal do, and an evening one, by the looks of their attire.

They were leaning in towards each other, his arm around her waist, her elbow casually placed on the mantel. Between them sat her gran's button jar.

They'd just finished the photo shoot when a car pulled up outside. The photographer scurried off to capture the event on film. And that's when she'd woken up.

As she stared out the car window, Emily felt calm and content that Jake had been so prominent in her dream. She took it as a good omen. When she'd had the dream before, it had never been clear who the man beside her was.

Previously, she'd always thought the house was the one she'd been renting from the Bakers. This time it had definitely been the cottage. Well, she supposed it must be, on account of the chandelier in the hall. What was the event? The grand opening? She hoped it was a sign this was all meant to be.

But, really, it could have been any building anywhere. Maybe it wasn't a gallery opening at all, but an engagement party, or a wedding. Emily frowned, trying to take her mind back to the image of them beside the fireplace. Did she have a ring on her left hand? Was that why she had her elbow on the mantelpiece? If so, why then include the button jar in the shot?

Oh for goodness sake, it was only a dream. They're not meant to make sense!
Really, the dream was just a montage of all the topics currently on her mind: shopping for lights, indecision over the chandelier, Jake's presence in her life, the cottage project…

‘Are you okay?' Jake sounded concerned. He gently squeezed her leg.

She reluctantly let the questions go and turned to look at him. ‘Yeah. I was just thinking about a dream. I've had versions of it a few times now. It's some sort of formal function. The last couple of times I was sure we were at the other house, but this time it wasn't.'

‘Well, that must be a good omen. And
we?
Even better if I'm with you,' he added, sounding genuinely pleased.

‘Do you think dreams foretell good and bad?'

‘God, they've been asking that question since the dawn of time. No idea. I, personally, take them with a pinch of salt,' Jake said.

Emily smiled at hearing yet another of Gran's sayings. She wondered with idle amusement if everything Gran had said over the years was just a series of well-worn quotes, clichés, and hackneyed old sayings. It was like she'd searched Google, except of course, Gran had never been near a computer.

The thought of her almost ninety-year-old granny trying to figure out how to turn on a computer, let alone punching requests into a search engine, struck Emily as hugely funny and she unsuccessfully tried to stifle a giggle.

‘What's so funny?' Jake asked.

‘Nothing really. I was just thinking about Gran and her use of sayings. I must be so tired I'm getting delirious. You were saying you take dreams with a pinch of salt,' she urged.

‘I think they're just the brain's way of expressing what we're thinking about, really,' he said with a shrug.

‘Yeah, you're probably right.'

‘Hey, don't read too much into it, whatever you think you saw. The project is going ahead, it's going to work out well, you're going to set up a successful gallery, and
we're
going to live happily ever after. I'm not saying life won't have its challenges, but we make a great team, Em. We communicate well, and with good communication you can solve most things. Though, when kids come along, it'll change things somewhat.' He stopped his ramble abruptly.

Kids? Again?

Emily tried not to look shocked, which was exactly how she felt. They'd agreed to take their relationship nice and steady. What
had changed? She
thought
she wanted kids one day, but certainly not right now. Pregnancy and childbirth sounded hideous! She'd never spent any time around pregnant women or small children – never even held a baby.

‘Sorry, I don't know where that came from. I didn't mean to put pressure on you. We did agree to take it easy,' Jake said.

Emily looked across at him. ‘But?'
There's clearly a but coming.

‘But I love you, Emily! I'd love nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with you, for better or worse.'

Emily wondered if the strange light feeling she was experiencing was the blood literally draining from her face.

He's not proposing, is he?

So what if he is?
she thought, surprising herself with how she actually felt. The blood started to rise again and her face blushed pink. Her heart rate increased.

‘Are you proposing to me, Jake?' she asked, and held her breath.

Jake hesitated for just a second. ‘I guess I am. I didn't mean to. I mean, I didn't mean to do it like this.' He kept looking between her and the road ahead. ‘But I mean it when I say I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you. We can work out all the details later.'

Emily stared across at him. She reckoned he was more flushed than her.

Suddenly the car came to a stop right in the middle of the dirt road. Jake yanked on the handbrake and then turned and looked into her eyes.

‘Hell, Em, marry me!' he cried.

‘Really?'

‘Yes, really! Please, as unromantic as my proposal is.'

Emily looked around, almost laughed. They were on an unsealed road surrounded by cleared farmland – practically nothing. As she
tried to commit the scene to memory, she wondered what constituted ‘romantic', anyway? It was so subjective.